chrismeyer6 wrote on Today, 00:31:

Oh man that hurts to look at. I'm sorry that happened to you. Was it not packaged properly?

There didn't appear to be any damage to the packaging when the delivery turned up, but it's clear it has been dropped on one corner.

I don't think the box was sturdy enough. Plenty of internal packaging, but quite a thin box for such a heavy laptop.

The second Kapok laptop arrived today while I was at work, this time without being smashed into a million pieces... this is the 8500p - supposed to be MMC-2 processor module, 15" 1024x768 screen, 8MB ATI Rage LT Pro, ESS Audiodrive 1879 + wavetable chip.

It's a bit dinged up, and missing the HDD caddy (but on that front I already checked; the caddy from the smashed 8500c *does* fit), but otherwise as I expected it.

Apart from:

It's another ESS 1878S Maestro-2E model! 👎 ... not the expected ESS 1879 Audiodrive and discrete wavetable module.

Piece of junk! My luck is just not very good at the moment.

megatron-uk wrote on Yesterday, 21:21:

First of the Kapok machines arrived today and I was able to unbox it this evening.

Oh, that is a shame. These do have rather brittle plastics, so making sure they're packed well is a concern for sure.

Kahenraz wrote on Today, 02:11:

I just wanted to mention that the NeoMagic MagicGraph 128XD has both Windows 3.1 and Windows 98 drivers. Although it does use unfiltered upscaling, which can look pretty terrible. I'm not certain about actual DOS games support that makes it "bad".

In particular, it struggles when certain 2D platformers scroll. You can see it in the Keen games and to a lesser extent in Jazz Jackrabbit.

keenmaster486 wrote on Today, 15:12:

Kahenraz wrote on Today, 02:11:

I just wanted to mention that the NeoMagic MagicGraph 128XD has both Windows 3.1 and Windows 98 drivers. Although it does use unfiltered upscaling, which can look pretty terrible. I'm not certain about actual DOS games support that makes it "bad".

In particular, it struggles when certain 2D platformers scroll. You can see it in the Keen games and to a lesser extent in Jazz Jackrabbit.

I noticed problems with my Thinkpad 240 (NeoMagic 128XD) in:

Keen 1 - 6 (jerky scrolling)
Dangerous Dave 1 - 2 (jerky scrolling)
Gods (status / score panel at bottom of screen is jerky when scrolling, but the main playfield/sprites are not)
Monster Bash 1 - 2 (like Gods; main playfield is smooth, but status bar is jerky)
Stormlord (jerky scrolling)
Zool (jerky scrolling)
Faery Tale Adventure (playfield scrolling is jerky, though sprites on the playfield move smoothly)
Albion (text windows in the game are offset to the right and partly off-screen)

Outside of those titles it performs very well.

One of the positives of the NeoMagic chip is that on most Thinkpads that use it, you have a hotkey combo to switch scaling on/off at will. Not all other early laptop chips have that option.

IMHO, I'd rate laptop VGA chips in this order:

Top tier
Nvidia (e.g. Geforce Go - but you can only find these on the *very* tail end of DOS-compatible laptops have that option)
ATI (from Rage LT and above - the start of proper interpolated full-screen scaling of all modes)

Middle tier
C&T 6555x (BIOS controlled scaling, good compatibility, and VEXP utility to do some fine tweaking of the scaling modes)
Neomagic (simply because of the ability to toggle scaling on/off while running; on most models)

Bottom tier
S3 (no / basic scaling options until very, very late chips were released)**
Trident ? Seems to be universally rated poor on laptops

** The datasheet for the S3 Virge (and onwards) does mention the ability to do bilinear filtered resolution scaling, but I have yet to see any evidence that anyone took advantage of this. It just looks like all other non-filtered scaling that all the other early VGA chips did. It does seem to have the potential to be better.

megatron-uk wrote on Today, 15:24:

Bottom tier

I would add Cirrus Logic & Silicon Motion to the Bottom tier.

megatron-uk wrote on Today, 13:42:

Piece of junk! My luck is just not very good at the moment.

Unfortunately, many Taiwanese laptops are garbage, didn't you know?

MAZter wrote on Today, 16:48:

I would add Cirrus Logic & Silicon Motion to the Bottom tier. […]
Show full quote

megatron-uk wrote on Today, 15:24:

Bottom tier

I would add Cirrus Logic & Silicon Motion to the Bottom tier.

megatron-uk wrote on Today, 13:42:

Piece of junk! My luck is just not very good at the moment.

Unfortunately, many Taiwanese laptops are garbage, didn't you know?

It's more that it has the Maestro-2 audio (and not the Audiodrive), than the build quality.

In relation to the smashed 8500c, I suspect just about anything would have been broken if dropped on the corner like this has.

My progress so far...

The pieces are so fine I've had to resort to super glue. Once it is all back together and set, then I'll probably reinforce it with epoxy resin on the back.

It's not the laptop I wanted, but no sense throwing it out if it can be fixed... however ugly it may eventually look...

MAZter wrote on Today, 16:48:

megatron-uk wrote on Today, 15:24:

Bottom tier

I would add Cirrus Logic & Silicon Motion to the Bottom tier.

I do have a ThinkPad 240X, in addition to a 240 (bought just for the donor screen - so currently screen-less!), and it has the Silicon Motion LynxEM... but I've never tried it (as in all aspects for DOS gaming the 240X is inferior to the earlier 240).

Maybe if I come across a spare screen for the 240X I'll test it some time.

megatron-uk wrote on Today, 15:24:

S3 (no / basic scaling options until very, very late chips were released)**
** The datasheet for the S3 Virge (and onwards) does mention the ability to do bilinear filtered resolution scaling, but I have yet to see any evidence that anyone took advantage of this. It just looks like all other non-filtered scaling that all the other early VGA chips did. It does seem to have the potential to be better.

The Virge/MX+ in my Kapok 8500M does near proper scaling - it must not be perfect because text can still look off when you're looking closely, but it has zero scolling issues and the aspect ratio looks correct. Worth noting that this will differ laptop to laptop, I've heard Toshibas with the MX just stick you with black borders.

NeoMagic, Cirrus, and C&T graphics all have scolling issues in games like Keen. NeoMagic is noticeably worse than the other two though. I do have one C&T 65555 laptop that does scaling similar to what my Kapok does, and also plays games like Keen without glitches.

The ability to switch between scaled/nonscaled on NeoMagic laptops is entirely up to the BIOS. I've run across plenty that can't do it. The same goes for C&T and Cirrus laptops - some laptops can, some can't.

MAZter wrote on Today, 16:48:

Unfortunately, many Taiwanese laptops are garbage, didn't you know?

I'd argue they're often built no worse than many name brand laptops were. There are plenty of Dell, HP, Compaq, and yes, even IBM laptops that suffer rampant hinge failure, and ABS plastic from this time is pretty much universally garbage.